''A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive'' is an 1843 book by
English philosopher John Stuart Mill.
Overview
In this work, he formulated the five principles of
inductive reasoning that are known as
Mill's Methods
Mill's Methods are five methods of induction described by philosopher John Stuart Mill in his 1843 book '' A System of Logic''. They are intended to illuminate issues of causation.
The methods
Direct method of agreement
For a property to b ...
. This work is important in the philosophy of science, and more generally, insofar as it outlines the empirical principles Mill would use to justify his moral and political philosophies.
An article in "Philosophy of Recent Times" has described this book as an "attempt to expound a psychological system of logic within empiricist principles.”
This work was important to the history of science, being a strong influence on scientists such as
Dirac.
''A System of Logic'' also had an impression on
Gottlob Frege
Friedrich Ludwig Gottlob Frege (; ; 8 November 1848 – 26 July 1925) was a German philosopher, logician, and mathematician. He was a mathematics professor at the University of Jena, and is understood by many to be the father of analytic ph ...
, who rebuked many of Mill's ideas about the
philosophy of mathematics
The philosophy of mathematics is the branch of philosophy that studies the assumptions, foundations, and implications of mathematics. It aims to understand the nature and methods of mathematics, and find out the place of mathematics in peopl ...
in his work ''
The Foundations of Arithmetic
''The Foundations of Arithmetic'' (german: Die Grundlagen der Arithmetik) is a book by Gottlob Frege, published in 1884, which investigates the philosophical foundations of arithmetic. Frege refutes other theories of number and develops his own ...
''.
Mill revised the original work several times over the course of thirty years in response to critiques and commentary by
Whewell
William Whewell ( ; 24 May 17946 March 1866) was an English polymath, scientist, Anglican priest, philosopher, theologian, and historian of science. He was Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. In his time as a student there, he achieved dis ...
,
Bain, and others.
Editions
* Mill, John Stuart, ''A System of Logic'', University Press of the Pacific, Honolulu, 2002,
See also
*
Emergentism
In philosophy, emergentism is the belief in emergence, particularly as it involves consciousness and the philosophy of mind. A property of a system is said to be emergent if it is a new outcome of some other properties of the system and their i ...
References
Sources
* ''Philosophy of Recent Times'', ed. J. B. Hartmann (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1967), I, 14.
External links
Online editions
* 1843. Google Books
Vol. IVol. II
(first edition)
* 1846. Google Books
All
* 1851. Google Books
Vol. I
Vol. II missing? Internet Archive
Vol. I
Vol. II missing? (third edition)
* 1858. Google Books
All
* 1862. Google Books
Vol. IVol. II
* 1868. Internet Archive
Vol. IVol. II
Als
Vol. IVol. II
Als
Vol. I
(seventh edition)
* 1872. Internet Archive
Vol. IVol. II
Also partial HTM
version
(eighth edition)
* 1882. Internet Archive
All
* 1882. Project Gutenberg
All
*
1843 non-fiction books
Books by John Stuart Mill
Logic books
Philosophy of science
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